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Thursday, May 12, 2016

Thoughts on Psalm 119:45

Have you ever considered what a blessing roads are? Thank God for roads! Because of roads, you can drive 500 miles in a day. Without roads it would take a month!

Imagine trying to drive a car through soft sand. Or through a thick forest. Or across rocky terrain. Or across a river. Do this the next time you’re on a long drive - look out to the side of the road where the ground has not been developed, and imagine what it would be like to drive across it at 70 miles per hour.

Whatever the terrain is, compared to a road, it would be terrible. If you could drive it at all.

So what’s the point? The point is that roads provide an unprecedented freedom to travel.

The psalmist says, “I will walk at liberty.” In our day and age, I think it might be better understood saying, “I will drive at liberty.”

You can drive anywhere you want to. Just turn the key and go.

But there is an underlying assumption to that freedom, and it’s the road. You’re free to drive anywhere you want - into a lake, off a cliff, through a thick forest - but whenever you get off the paved surface - the smooth path - it’s going to take a hundred times as long to reach your destination, and ultimately you’re going to get stuck.

So anyone who thinks “the Bible is just a bunch of rules and restrictions; do’s and don’ts to try and control my life and take away my freedom” is like someone who says, “Roads are just built to control me, to tell me where I can and cannot go. I don’t need roads, I’ll go wherever I want!”

A very foolish thought indeed.

But the psalmist describes a totally different experience - I will walk at liberty, for I seek Your precepts He is saying, in essence, “I am completely free to go wherever I want, because You’ve already built the road to take me there!” What a difference in perspective!

What is even more astonishing, is that God doesn’t expect you to walk the road. He has provided a breathtaking, miraculous machine that is weather-proof, has temperature control, comfortable leather seats, a radio, cruise control, GPS navigation, and travels fifteen times faster than walking!